Differences:
2008 model has TWO firewire ports - 400 and 800
2009 only has ONE firewire port - 800
- though it does have ONE MORE USB... and truth be told I don't own any firewire things..

the 2.66GHz model is SLOWER than the 2.8GHz model.. who would have thought =p though the differences don't seem that huge unless we're talking frame rate where the 2.8 really kicks the 2.66 in the back side.
-The 2.99 seems to preform better in most tasks to the 2.8 however only marginally (not that i should expect a huge difference)

2.8 only has a 320GB hdd - I have a external 500GB western digital, however I REALLY like the inbuilt 640 =D
2008 model - has 2 GB of ram, can upgrade it to 4 from OWC for A$75 +shipping
2009 model- 4GBs of ram and can be upgraded to 8 - even though it would be quite some time before upgrading, even via third party ram sellers having 8GBs of ram is crazy expensive A$ 1065 +shipping actually! :|

so a 2.8 with 4GB of ram and a 500GB external HDD - i think that would kind of put it up to the specs of the 2.99... of course it's an external not internal hdd though.

new 2.99 - all that in one for A$ 2,798.00 - minus $150~ for mail-in rebate
$2630~

I would like to also ask, would any of the upgrades be worth it? I'm not a gamer so upgrading the graphics card isn't an issue for me, however i'm thinking about the HDD upgrade to 1TB, $170 i think it was, do you think it's a worthwhile upgrade, or just get another external 1TB?

Well I have actually come to fruition that I'll be buying the 2.99 through making this thread, however if anyone can give me any reasons why I should consider anything else, or anything I have missed PLEASE let me know!

I'm hoping that this will keep me happy for a year or two, and then I'll pick up a refurb/eBay MacPro Octo for a cheap price, or maybe when our Aussie dollar gets back on track =D

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